IVF treatments for lesbian couples double since 2007

The number of lesbian couples undergoing IVF treatment leapt from 176 in 2007 to 350 in 2009, according to figures reportd by Mail Online.

In 2008, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act allowed for the first time two mothers or fathers to be named on a child’s birth certificate.

It also removed the requirement of a father figure in the child’s life in favour of “supportive” parenting without regard to gender.

Gary Nunn, of Stonewall, said: “Now the law has changed it has made it fairer and easier for them to get treatment.”

Norman Wells, the director of the Family Education Trust, who disagreed with removing the requirement of a male figure, said: “It was always inevitable that removing the legal requirement to consider the need of a child for a father would result in a rise in fatherless families.

“The change in the law had nothing to do with the welfare of children and everything to do with the desires of adults to subvert the natural order and redefine the family to suit themselves.”

1,070 single women underwent IVF treatment last year, a significant increase on the 2007 figure of 347.

The figures were recorded by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the body established to regulate IVF, the storage of eggs, sperm and embryos, and embryo research.